Dropping anchor
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2007
1
16
20
Trip End
Dec 15, 2007
Kolkata (Calcutta),
India
Thursday, November 22, 2007
when i stepped off the plane onto the tarmac of the calcutta airport the heat and humidity were shockingly intense...i had forgotten about that part. the days in kathmandu, even in the winter, are warm and it's really only at night that it gets at all cold. calcutta is hot, hot, hot all year round. there is some variation across the seasons: winter is really hot, summer is unbelievably hot, with spring and fall somewhere in between. i felt ill at ease as i exited the airport, bracing myself for the inevitable hassles of making it into town and finding a hotel room. i was traveling alone again, and it had been a long time since i had to deal with the complications of deceitful taxi drivers and unknown streets by myself. i was filled with trepidation and found myself wishing tam were with me. there was a prepaid taxi booth by the exit door. the price listed to go to the dum dum metro stop (from where i could use the cheap, clean, and quick calcutta underground to get to sudder st., the backpacker ghetto) was 130 rupees. i inquired at the desk and was told that all the prepaid taxis had already been taken, that there were none left. sullenly, i went outside into the night to deal with the regular taxis on my own. i found a driver immediately and told him where i wanted to go and inquired about the price. he told me it would be on the meter, which seemed to good to be true (which it was). as we were walking toward his taxi 'on the meter' changed to 'prepaid' which was a bit confusing...maybe these taxis had set rates as well? i got into the cab and then asked what the prepaid amount was, wanting to make sure everything was clear before we set out. he told me 690 rupees. i almost popped an eyeball. i immediately inquired as to whether or not he thought i was completely stupid and made as though to open the taxi door. the price magically dropped to 390 rupees. the numbers seemed totally random, and on further inquiry it was explained to me that the set price to go to dum dum metro was 390 and all the way to sudder st. was 690. i continued to bluster and my would-be driver pulled out a laminated price sheet. on the sheet it was clearly stated that the set price to go to dum dum metro was 160 rupees...390 was for further into calcutta where i didn't want to go. when i pointed this out i was just met with dismissal. i moved to get out of the taxi again and suddenly found myself in the middle of bargaining for my taxi ride. i said that i'd pay no more than 200...he went down to 300...i said 250, last chance. he said no. i got out of the taxi...and immediately was confronted with another taxi driver who had been hovering outside, waiting to swoop in and whisk me away. he said 300 to dum dum metro (he'd obviously been eavesdropping). i angrily spat that i would go for no more than 250. he acquiesced and i got my ride into town for just under twice the actual prepaid rate. as we were leaving the airport parking lot my driver asked me if i had the right change, to which i answered 'yes' dismissively without even really thinking about it. when we arrived at dum dum junction i looked into my wallet and discovered that i had enough change for 220 rupees or a 500 rupee note. i was quick-witted enough to remember that i still had to buy a metro ticket which would be less than 10 rupees and which i probably couldn't pay for with a 500 rupee note. i hid a 10 rupee note in my wallet and then told my driver apologetically that i had either 210 rupees or 500 rupees. he grudgingly accepted the 210 rupees having no way to make change for 500, mumbling to himself about how he asked me this very question. i apologized again and honestly meant it seeing as i hadn't planned to be deceptive like this...but i was happy at the outcome and didn't feel quite as ripped off as i had during the taxi ride.
on the subway platform i met an older indian man who is a professor of chemistry at a university in calcutta. after a brief but pleasant conversation while we waited for the subway he seemed to decide that getting me to sudder st. safely was now his responsibility. i had managed to arrive in calcutta on the evening of a day of mass rioting and sudden violence, much of it right in the central neighbourhood where i was headed. earlier in the day an organized protest had devolved into chaos with fire bombings and fights with the police. the army had been called in and the city was under curfew. accusations are flying as to just how planned the rioting was and who might have been responsible for getting it started. the issues at hand revolve around minority rights, mostly the muslim minority in west bengal. the relationship between muslims and hindus has been known to become strained in various parts of india but here in west bengal the situation has the weight of partition hanging over it as well. bengal was sliced in half when east pakistan (now bangladesh) was formed and the violence of relocation as people were herded according to religious affiliation was not so long ago that it doesn't resonate through families here. i'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but last winter in the village of nandigram there were protests about the government's plan to take land away from villagers to create a special economic zone to promote industrial investment...the police broke it up with guns blazing, leaving 14 dead. the elected state government in west bengal has been a communist party majority for many years now, and they were immediately accused of abandoning villagers in favour of big business and using the police to enforce that policy. the supreme court of west bengal declared the police action unconstitutional. while that's been simmering just under the surface for a while now, ostensibly the main reason for yesterday's protest was that the west bengali government had granted a female writer from bangladesh political asylum. taslima nasreen has been a political refugee since 1994 when she had to flee bangladesh under threat of violence. much like with salman rushdie, her writings are under attack by hard-line muslims for being 'anti-islam', in particular a book in which a hindu family is ostracized by muslims in bangladesh. the combination of knee-jerk bigotry and justifiable anger at the government combined and boiled over. as i was being escorted by the kindly indian chemistry professor i didn't see any evidence of the rioting, but it may have been further south of where i am. as we parted ways, the professor handed me his address and phone number and had me promise to contact him should i run into any trouble and write him a letter as soon as i got home. i found the hotel i had decided to try and stay at but all they had left was one bed in the dormitory which wasn't ideal but i had no desire to look elsewhere that night. i was too tired to go out again once i sat down on my bed and so i decided to finish reading my book about central asia. in one of those strange moments of synchronicity i read the following:
'it is strange. you arrive in a city by night, and staring down from a hotel balcony on its light-glazed streets, looking more secret and seductive than they will by day, you wonder how you will ever decipher it. but within a morning the puzzle unravels with desanctifying speed. a few hours' walk locates the main avenues, elicits a conversation or two, uncovers a mood, and you return to a hotel no longer swimming among mapless lights and possibilities, but anchored, grey and unlovely, on the corner of gogol and krasin streets.'
the passage was written about almaty in kazakhstan, and so my street corner would be sudder and stuart streets...and my opinion of calcutta is somewhat more upbeat than the author's of almaty. but it struck me as insightfully true, and sure enough after an afternoon of errands and exploration i feel much firmer on my feet and back in form. i have an indian sim card and my first couple of train tickets. i have the master indian train schedule, a wonderful book called 'trains at a glance', and a few new adapters for the plugs here. i've eaten some bengali food and wandered all over downtown. i've moved from the dorm room to a single room on the roof. the unease that characterized my arrival last night has melted away today. and i had almost forgotten that i've been here before, the ghost of my last visit whispering knowledge to me quietly...occasionally giving me double vision, but also giving me strength.
